The IIC was launched at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology three years ago to help speed the transition to a high-growth and high-opportunity digital economy. The IIC awards $1.6 million annually to the “heroes of Inclusive Innovation” − organizations that are using technology to reinvent the future of work and create a more equitable economy.

Nearly 300 for-profit and non-profit organizations across North America registered for the North America Challenge. Regional experts evaluated and provided feedback on applications. A Selection Panel of 10 regional leaders chose four IIC North America Winners live at the event. Each winner received $20,000 and an expenses-paid trip to MIT for the global tournament on November 8. At this Grand Prize Gala, to be held at MIT, the IIC Champion Committee will select four Grand Prize Winners from the four North America winners as well as the 16 winners from the MIT IIC’s other regions – Latin America, Europe, Africa, and Asia -– to each receive $250,000.

CareAcademy (Boston, MA) provides online professional development to teach and upskill caregivers, providing opportunities for millions of workers to prepare for the future of healthcare without allowing language, income or status to be a barrier.

Apps Without Code (Detroit, MI) is a global education platform that teaches entrepreneurs how to build profitable app businesses without writing any code, with a focus on Black and Latino populations who lack equal access to STEM education.

“The grand challenge of our era is to use digital technologies to create not only prosperity, but shared prosperity,” says Erik Brynjolfsson, Director of the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy and the Schussel Family Professor of Management Science at the MIT Sloan School of Management. “We created the MIT Inclusive Innovation Challenge to recognize and reward the many amazing people and organizations that are working to accomplish this mission.”

“With the MIT IIC, we’re celebrating the entrepreneurs and innovators who are demonstrating many different ways to put powerful technology to use to improve people’s economic prospects,” adds Andrew McAfee, co-director of the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy, Principal Research Scientist at MIT Sloan. “Our North America winners and other entrants show us that broadly shared prosperity is possible, which makes a great antidote to pessimism and negativity.”